In Fulfillment (Knopf 2025), Lee Cole’s second novel, half-brothers Joel and Emmett find themselves together again in their family home in Paducah, Kentucky. You don’t have to have read Cole’s first novel, Groundskeeping, to easily jump into the western Kentucky world of Fulfillment. The two half-brothers are living such different lives. Emmett is broke and […]
“The Pursuit of Elena Bradford” by Ann H. Gabhart
July 14, 2025 by Leave a Comment
The Pursuit of Elena Bradford (Revell, 2025) by Ann H. Gabhart is set in the 1840s, a time when societal expectations often stifled women’s talents and ambitions. But Elena Bradford’s mother has a plan—one that could save their family from financial ruin. After her father’s poor financial decisions left them on the brink of losing […]
“Song of Sourwood Mountain” by Ann H. Gabhart
June 2, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Ann Gabhart’s latest novel, Song of Sourwood Mountain (Revell Press 2024), explores the meaning of family and community. With its focus on a slow-developing romance, and overt evangelical religious values, the novel reads like a historical Christian romance in the tradition of Grace Livingston Hill. The Song of Sourwood Mountain tells the story of Mira […]
“Walton’s Creek, Land of our Fathers” by Rickie Zayne Ashby
December 8, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Walton’s Creek, Land of Our Fathers (Acclaim Press 2024), Rickie Zayne Ashby’s debut novel, is a book you should judge by its cover. Not only is the artwork evocative of the story inside, but also the cover itself under the dust jacket, is a thing of beauty. This book is available in hardcover only, so […]
Jayne Moore Waldrop interviews Silas House, Kentucky Poet Laureate
June 14, 2023 by 1 Comment
In late April 2023, Silas House was inducted as the thirty-first poet laureate of Kentucky. He is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels including Clay’s Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, The Coal Tattoo, Eli the Good, Same Sun Here, Southernmost, and his most recent, Lark Ascending (2022) (Read SLR review of this novel here). Lark Ascending was a Booklist Editors’ […]
“Blood Creek,” by Kimberly Collins
October 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Kimberly Collins deftly plants the vicious Paint-Creek/Cabin Creek coal wars at the heart of the first installment in her Mingo Chronicles historical series. The novel is titled Blood Creek (Blue Mingo Press, 2019). While the West Virginia and Kentucky mine wars have been the focus of both fiction and nonfiction, Collins […]